Cosmogonic Myth Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [15]

Genesis (1:24-5):

24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, this symbolism from Abrahamic mythology can be interpreted as further construing the genesis of construing experience as meaning through language.

In verse 24, the creator of meaning again verbally projects a proposal for phenomena to be created:

and	God	said		let	the earth	bring forth	the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind
1			"	2
	Sayer	Process: verbal		Process:	Actor	material: creative	Goal

That is to say, the creation of phenomena is again construed as a linguistic construal of experience, made by the creator of meaning.

Verse 25 then confirms the creation of the phenomena verbally proposed in verse 24:

and	God	made	the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind
	Actor	Process: material: creative	Goal

And in the final clause nexus, the creator of meaning cognitively projects the ascription of a positive value (attitude) to the phenomena:

and	God	saw	that	it	was	good
1			'	2
	Senser	Process: mental: cognitive		Carrier	Process: attributive	Attribute

which continues the ascription of interpersonal values (attitudes) to experiential phenomena; cf the notion of 'categorising on value' in the neuroscientific theory (TNGS) of Edelman (1992).